Yesterday, Dr. Matthew Francis (of the very interesting and worth-checking-out physics blog Galileo’s Pendulum) pointed me to NASA’s astronomy picture of the day, Arp 272, which consists of two colliding galaxies (center and upper right) with a third likely interacting galaxy (upper left). The trio lies some 450 million light years away from us, and the picture is perhaps 150 thousand light years across:
In addition to being an awesome astronomical phenomenon, the picture is quite reminiscent of something very familiar to me. Not sure what I’m talking about? Check out my avatar icon, which I made from scratch and have been using since 2007:
Clearly, the universe has ripped me off! Now I need to figure out how to sue the universe for copyright infringement…
This isn’t the first physics “look alike” for my avatar. Some time ago, @scimomof2 sent me the following:
This is an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image.
These are some great examples of pareidolia, in which one imagines significant patterns in essentially random phenomena. Seeing images in clouds is a classic example of pareidolia, though I wouldn’t use my own cloud-watching as a “normal” case.
Skulls in the Stars 
OK, first, that’s eerie. Second, I think you’re 450 million years too late to file a copyright infringement case.
Keep quiet! You think the copyright lawyers understand what a “light-year” is? 😉
The universe always wins “prior art” claims. I’m glad you enjoyed the pic, and thanks for linking to my blog!
You’re welcome! I’ll add you to the blogroll in my next round of updates.